A Qing Dynasty Tale: The Leisurely Concubine Dong Duan

[Complete] This novel is finished. I’ll be making extensive corrections to typos in the coming days.

[My Laid-Back Days in the Fourth Prince’s Household (Time Travel to the Qing Dynasty) is currently updating. Please add it to your collection.]

Ge Ya transmigrates into the Qing Dynasty, becoming Consort Duan of the Dong clan, a concubine in Emperor Kangxi’s harem whose cause of death is unknown.

At the time, she is pregnant with Kangxi’s second princess, who is destined to die young.

Once she has secured her pregnancy, she looks around and realizes that her family is powerful, and since she has only a princess, she won’t have to get involved in the struggle for the throne.

Isn’t this the perfect easy life? All she has to do is raise her child, lie flat, and enjoy her retirement.

Rumors spread through the harem that the wooden beauty, Concubine Dong, has suddenly come to her senses. She has become radiant and enchanting, prompting the emperor to summon her again and again.

Hearing the gossip, Kangxi looks pleased. “Ge Ya is finally willing to put some effort into me.”

Ge Ya is utterly speechless and immediately rejects the idea three times over.

She has only stopped trying to hide her true, laid-back nature. How did that become fighting for favor?

From then on, no matter what Ge Ya does, Kangxi takes it as a sign of her love for him.

Ge Ya smiles bitterly. I really am so damn screwed.

Years later, Ge Ya has risen to a high position. She looks puzzled. Didn’t she originally just want to be a lazy fish?

P.S. Later on, she’ll be the emperor’s one and only.

The author has made up a mountain of details!!!

This is an alternate-history Qing Dynasty, not true history. Most of the plot is fictional. [No historical research buffs, please!!!]

Coming soon: My Laid-Back Days in the Fourth Prince’s Household (Time Travel to the Qing Dynasty). Please add it to your collection!!!

After Yi Yan dies from working overtime, she transmigrates to the Qing Dynasty and becomes Shu Mulu Yi Yan.

She arrives just before the selection of imperial consorts. As far as she can remember, there were no Shu Mulu women in the princes’ households, so Yi Yan calmly waits to be rejected and go home to become a proper wife.

Who could have guessed that, because of a struggle between the Four Consorts at the selection, she would end up being assigned to the Fourth Prince’s household by a twist of fate?

At this time, the Fourth Prince, Yin Zhen, is only twenty-two.

Doesn’t that make her an early investor?!

That means that once the Fourth Prince ascends the throne, she’ll secure the rank of Concubine without fighting for it.

Question: What’s it like to enjoy retirement while you’re still young?

Something like this:

When you’re bored, get a stack of novels!

When you want to watch the drama and snack, grab a handful of melon seeds!

When you want a fancy afternoon tea, tell the cook to get started!

And that’s not all.

She can enjoy afternoon tea while reading novels.

She can enjoy afternoon tea while listening to Jiangnan folk tunes.

Ah, retirement is so comfortable.

But Yi Yan notices that the more she takes it easy, the more often the Fourth Prince comes to see her.

She also discovers a secret: the future Emperor Yongzheng really is a closeted flirt!

…

A little scene

Yin Zhen sends over a dog to keep the child company.

On a whim, Yi Yan draws a chibi picture of the child playing with the dog and hangs it in the room.

One day, Yin Zhen walks around in front of Yi Yan holding the dog. The next day, he comes by holding the child and petting the dog together.

Later, Yin Zhen stands in front of the picture with the child in his right arm and the dog in his left.

Yi Yan: …

If you wanted me to draw you a picture too, you could’ve just said so!!!

In the end, Yin Zhen happily takes his chibi portrait away.

Theme: Even if you’re a lazy fish, you should still live well and keep striving every day.